Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Guide to Dog Training

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is packed with really wonderful training information (my excitable, lunging puppy has nearly mastered heel in 3 lessons) but don't buy it if you already own Good Dog, Bad Dog -- it contains EXACTLY the same training information, much to my chagrin! (I ended up returning this to Amazon for a refund.) I was looking forward to another Uncle Matty book. It would have been more useful if it had included some new takes on problem behavior -- jumping, mouthing, etc. But if you don't already own Good Dog, Bad Dog, it's a wonderful training tool.

This is an excellent book for the average person to understand about teaching their pet household manners so the dog is much more enjoyable for the family. Matthew Margolis has such understanding of the differences between dog personalities and how they need to be handled in teaching technique. He uses praise rather than submission - therefore the dog responds because he 'wants to please his master'. He makes the statement that it is the owners that are usually at fault for bad behavior in our animals as they don't understand how to take charge. There is no such thing as an untrainable dog!

As a fan of 'Uncle Matty's" delightful television program, I was disappointed by this book. While the information about dog personalities and training techniques was good, the little anecdotes used to frame the information, which are touted as what makes it special, were very silly and unnatural. Uncle Matty and his collaborators need to get a better dialog writer.

I was in a hurry when I chose this book, now I wish I'd spent a little more time flipping through it. Each section begins with dialogue between Matty and the people/dogs he is working with. That part is completely pointless, and not even entertaining to me. Finally I realized I could skip half of each chapter to get to the meat. Still though, there is pointless ad-libbing through the actually instructions! By skipping, it only took me 45 minutes to get through this book. If you can manage that, there is some usefull advice. However, for such a thick book, I was very surprised that it only covered basic commands. I am still a little confused about how to train my dog! Definately not worthy of "The Ultimate Guide.." title.

My husband bought me this book for my birthday, seduced, no doubt, by the cute Jack Russel Terrier on the cover. A cheap trick by Uncle Matty, a relentless self-promoter. I found this book to be very poorly written. Time and time again I felt like throwing it out the window, but I was hungry for the information, so I stuck with it. There is so much inane, and completely useless "dialogue", between Uncle Matty and his bumbling, helpless clients, that the advice (with which I found no fault) gets lost. The book reads like a transcript of some instructional video, and perhaps it is, but that is nowhere stated. (At least you could ffw a video...) The book also seems to have a certain ideological bent, promoting the idea of non-traditional families and such. Being a Western Massachusetts liberal I don't need to be converted -- all I want is to train my dog! Not one to be proud of, Uncle Matty!

This book appears to have been written to mimic Uncle Matty's TV show (which I've never seen). This means lots of "cute" dialogue between Uncle Matty and the dog owners he's trying to help. They even write in "stage directions," that is, what's happening at the time.

And the instructions Uncle Matty gives us for the basic commands -- sit, stay, down, come, etc. -- are so complicated and convoluted, I'm not sure anyone could follow them! "Here's how you hold the leash; here's how you do your feet; don't say the dog's name; say the dog's name..." For crying out loud!

After I spent a couple days slugging through this book, I read "Good Dog: Positive Dog Training Techniques" by Deborah Wolfe in a couple hours. Her philosophy differs a bit from Uncle Matty -- no high falsetto, but lots of praise nonetheless, for example -- but the basics are there: punish only if the dog understands and is caught in the act; follow it up with praise; state commands only once... Her book was much more business-like and straightforward.

If you like Uncle Matty and want to read his cute-lame repartee wtih his guests, go ahead and read this book. But if you just want to get down to the business of actually training your dog, look elsewhere.

The first reviewer obviously has not read this book - or at the least completely failed to understand it. I've been to two different obedience training classes with my dog and neither was nearly as helpful as Uncle Matty. I've recommended this book to several friends and all agree that it's the best dog training book ever. Uncle Matty knows dogs and he'll train you to understand them, as well.

"Repeat after me, please, I am Jeanette."
"Okay. I am Jeanette."
"I am a human."
She sighs.
"I am a human."
"Punch is a dog."
"Okay, okay."
"Come on, say it"
Page 44

This is all you need to know about this book. It treats you like an idiot, incapable of recognizing that you know full well you are not a dog and that dogs think differently. I would appreciate being treated like the college educated adult that I am. The anecdotes are poorly written and take away from the task at hand. At least now I know why this book was $3 at the used book store.

Uncle Mattie is a creep. I believe that dogs need training and different dogs need different things. I have 3 beautiful dachshunds. My older dachsie has back trouble and seisures. This is all part of what we think is bad breeding as the other 2 from different litters have zero health problems. My little girl is the sweetest thing in the world and so very well behaved. She would never bite and she is so patient and tolerant. Before I knew that she was having seisures at night, I discussed the problem with Uncle Mattie, (the creep) and he wanted me to fly my dog out to him so he could do some bruital training, (in his own words)with the dog. He stated that the dog was vicious and would get worse. What a creep. This dog would never hurt anyone or anything. What a putz! If I'd done what he asked I would have had to put the dog down. What a creep. OH yeah, and he said about 10 times, I should buy his book. IN HIS DREAMS!

I didn't buy this book, a friend lent it to me to read. Thank goodness I didn't spend money because I would be even more annoyed than I am. The book basically uses the same 'solution' for every problem. Jerk the leash and yell no! First, I don't need a book to tell me how to do that and second I am really into dogs and have read other books that come up with much better solutions that don't require screaming at the dog and jerking it around on a choke collar. What is with these guys?